The invention is in the field of percussive photoflash devices, such as percussive flashcubes.
A commercially available percussive flashcube, called MagiCube, has a housing comprising a substantially flat, square base member carrying four percussively actuated flash lamps respectively near its four sides. Each of the flash lamps has a downwardly extending percussive ignition tube held in respective bores in the base member. Four striker springs are provided and are respectively held in cocked position with respect to the four ignition tubes by means of four cocking pins extending upwardly from the base member. The base member has a downwardly extending connector for insertion in a camera socket which rotates the flashcube to bring an unflashed lamp in a frontwardly facing position. Four trigger openings are provided through the base member respectively beneath the four cocked striker springs. When a flash picture is taken, a trigger finger rises from the camera and through the trigger opening associated with the frontwardly facing flash lamp and its trigger spring, and pushes the trigger spring up so that it releases over the top of its cocking pin and impacts against the ignition tube of the frontwardly facing lamp thus causing it to flash. This general arrangement is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,669 to John Shaffer.
The above-referenced patent describes the desirability of having the striker springs strike the ignition tubes sufficiently high up from their lower ends to insure reliable firing of the lamps, because in manufacturing the ignition tubes it is undesirable to provide the ignition material in the lower part thereof. Thus, it is desired that the striker springs strike the ignition tubes at a point higher than that of the cocked positions of the striker springs, because the height of the latter is limited by the amount of upward travel of the camera's trigger finger. The above-referenced patent discloses a plurality of inclined ramps on the top of the base member, each located between a lamp and its associated trigger opening through the base member, so that when a striker spring is released it strikes against the ramp and rides up its inclined surface before striking the lamp's ignition tube.